Author: tallbastard

James is the founder member of SPC and lives with his family in Deptford SE London.
SPC moved up to Deckspace in 2001 and retains the rooftop studio spaces for use by its subscribers that continue to enjoy diy web, mail and media hosting alongside a bramble of production experiments and collaborations in progress.

Many thanks and appreciation to all involved with co-ordination and participation in ‘Favelas Arise’ workshops in Sao Paulo, Brazil. On 3rd of December 2017 the Reverso group from London attended the first gathering of surburban favela and occupied housing representatives at Escola da Cidade.

This consisted of presentations to introduce each other and open discussions about shared issues and experiences as well as some detail of conditions at each city wide location. A great start to a busy week for us all.

Each day until departure on 12th December the London group visited a different community space and met with collective members, exchanged information and tested out some of the tools and techniques as featured in this Reverso report.

Time was short to hear about all the great work and discuss the Mazi toolkit which was sometimes frustrating. In each situation we were supported by professional and community interpreters whom helped communicate the many different contexts, conditions and aspirations being so eloquently expressed by all.

Without the local support for personal introductions and neighbourhood guides it would not have been possible to navigate in and out of these very different environments so freely and safely. Thanks again to all involved for the great work and friendships fostered for the future.

It’s not an end to anything but a brave beginning to so much that deserves attention and will reward for the effort. Viva Reverso!

We are currently finalising details with Central St Martins and co-ordintators in Brazil, for a trip to Sao Paulo early in December 2017 The gathering together of supporting materials for workshops and publish information about those visiting from the UK as well as those supporting and hosting the initiative, so they are ready for translation to Brazilian Portuguese.

Our plan is to meet and work with groups from the Occupied Housing movement and suburban favelas, to share skills and learn more about the current conditions for people living in this huge city as it undergoes rapid transformation and widening poverty gap.

In our preparation for public workshops, meet-ups and socialising, we have been researching the measures required to translate the technical and academic writing, working notes and tool guides.

Using wordpress plugin Polylang provides a method of blogging in multiple languages which are then filtered in the local language version as set in viewers webrowser.

Using the Mazi toolkit, CSM staff and students will prepare a custom template disk image to take with us. It will be ready to hold the photogrammetry images and models of social spaces, catalogs of community archives featuring key accounts of resistance and action as well as a set of collective awareness platform tools to support activities underway across the city in the struggle for social housing and respect for human rights of all citizens.

We are writing English and Portuguese language version guides for Mazizones, Photogrammetry and Active Archiving in advance of a trip from London to Sao Paulo in December 2017.

Staff from fine art 3D department of Central St Martins will be joined by community archive and DIY network activists in London to hold public workshops at the Occupied Housing projects and suburban Favelas to promote collective awareness and free information infrastructures.